"So, naturalists observe, a flea has smaller fleas that on him prey; and these have smaller still to bite ’em; and so proceed ad infinitum."

- Jonathan Swift

September 22, 2010

September 22 - Ambylomma americanum

Yeeee haw! Today's parasite is the Lone Star Tick, Ambylomma americanum, though I must confess that although it is sometimes found in Texas, its name comes from the spot on the back of the females of the species. These ticks primarily feed on cattle or deer as adults. This species of tick is not thought to vector Lyme Disease, but they do transmit other parasites to humans, such as granulocytic ehrlichiosis (Ehrlichia ewingii), tularemia (Francisella tularensis), and a close relative of the Lyme disease bacterium, Borrelia lonestari, which produces Southern tick-associated rash illness (STARI). A. americanum also holds the distinction of being the first species of tick that was described from the United States - back before we were the United States - in 1754.

Administrators

Why Parasite of the Day? (If it's not every day...)

The United Nations declared 2010 the International Year of Biodiversity. In celebration of the enormous diversity of parasites and to highlight their importance, we created this blog, which showcased a species of parasite every day. Now that 2010 is over, we will continue to add more parasites from time to time, and write about any newly published research on parasite species that we have posted about yet.

See this post from the start of 2011 where we discuss the sheer scale of parasite biodiversity, and this post from the end of 2011 pretty much summarizes the mission of this blog.

Got Parasites?

Got parasites? The American Society of Parasitologists is interested. We invite you to share with us your observations, ideas and questions about parasites. Our members and The Journal of Parasitology represent a wide range of research interests including ecology, evolution, systematics, immunology, biochemistry and molecular biology. Please post any aspect of parasitology you wish to share with us on our Facebook Group Page. Please go to our home page at http://asp.unl.edu/ and look for the ASP on Facebook link.